October 2 & 3, 2015:
Gershwin & Bernstein concert
Our 85th Season started off with audience favorites, Gershwin & Bernstein! The program included Gershwin’s Concerto for Piano in F Major featuring soloist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner, Bernstein’s West Side Story: Symphonic Dances, and also a MSO Premiere of MSYO alum Andrew Norman’s Drip Blip Sparkle Spin Glint Glide Glow Float Flop Chop Pop Shatter Splash!
Since then, the LA Philharmonic commissioned Norman to compose Sustain for their 100th season. Norman received a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Sustain and the LA Philharmonic won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for their performance. Sustain was also one of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize Finalists in Music.
October 5 & 6, 2007
Our first concert in the Gallo Center!
While the MSO’s rich history stretches back to 1931, our first Subscription concert in the Gallo Center for the Arts was in October 2007. This season opening concert featured Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris and was conducted by Erich Kunzel with Leon Bates on piano. The MSO previously had performed on stage with Patti LuPone back in September 2007 for the Gallo Center’s very first concert.
Before the Gallo Center was built, the MSO would perform in a variety of spaces including the Modesto High School Auditorium, the Strand Theater (where Brendon Theater on 10th Street currently sits), and Modesto Junior College. However, since its establishment in 2007, the MSO has been a proud resident company of the Gallo Center for the Arts and has been performing there ever since.
October 13 & 14, 2017
Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert in 2017 was wildly successful and attracted families from all over the state hoping to see something strange at the Gallo Center.
“Absolutely phenomenal performance! We saw the Nightmare Before Christmas. We will definitely see this next time they do this... Great job to all of you who made this possible for us to see!! BRAVO”
October 23, 1962
Frank Mancini announces retirement
On October 23, 1962, founder Frank “Proof” Mancini announced his retirement as Music Director of the Modesto Symphony Orchestra and conducted his final concert after 32 years at the helm.
According to Margaret Painter, a longtime Modesto resident and MSO subscriber since its inception in 1931, “Mancini’s final concert program featured the violinist Andre Toth and closed with Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”). After the orchestra’s last note, musicians and audience joined in paying tribute to their beloved “Proof.” Applause continued so long that for the first time in the history of the orchestra, claims a musician, the director returned to the podium a second time to acknowledge the tribute.”
Frank Mancini’s handwritten final note in the concert program.
“Starting our 31th [sic] season, which may be my last as its conductor, I hope and pray that the M.S.O. will never cease to exist, on the century it will get better and better.”
October 24, 2004
Spooktacular!
The first Symphonic Spooktacular was held at the Modesto High auditorium on Oct. 24, 2004. Conducted by Music Director Darryl One, this interactive musical “who-dunnit” was a part of the MSO’s Family & Friends concert series, with concerts for the surrounding schools and the public alike! There were also many activities for all ages to enjoy including a costume contest, pumpkin painting, and more!
